NEW DELHI, Oct 27: The Congress on Monday accused the Election Commission of colluding with the Modi government to carry out a “game of vote chori (voter theft)” across 12 states under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The party alleged that after Bihar’s revision drive, which it claimed led to the deletion of 69 lakh names, the same “exercise in voter manipulation” was now being expanded nationwide. Soon after the Election Commission on Monday announced holding Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in 12 states, the Congress questioned the exercise, and said the poll body’s intentions and credibility were under suspicion as neither the voters nor the opposition were satisfied with it.
In a video message posted on X, Congress’ media and publicity head Pawan Khera said, “We have not yet received answers to the questions related to the SIR conducted in Bihar. The situation was such that the Supreme Court had to step in several times to rectify the SIR in Bihar.
“The intentions of the Election Commission and the BJP, which has made the EC its puppet, regarding Bihar’s SIR have already come to light before the entire country.
“Whenever SIR happens, Election Commission employees go to every house, add new voters, and delete those who need to be deleted.” But not even a singe voter has been added in Bihar, whereas 65 lakh votes have been deleted as part of the SIR exercise, which raises several questions, Khera said.
Now they (EC) are repeating the exercise in 12 states, Khera said.
The Congress leader also said that following the revelation of ‘vote theft’ in the Aland Assembly constituency in Karnataka by Rahul Gandhi, the SIT said that a centralised operation was being carried out to strike names from the voter list.
“We will come to know about the details of this after the SIT probe is complete in Karnataka,” he said.
“Amid all this, conducting the SIR by such an Election Commission, whose credibility and intention are under suspicion, does not seem right. Clearly, neither the people, nor the opposition or the voters are satisfied,” Khera alleged in the video message.
The Congress also alleged on its X handle that various cases and methods of “vote theft” are coming to light across the country, with votes being deliberately added in some places, while in others, they are being cut.
“The Election Commission should have responded to these cases. It should have investigated them, but instead, the Election Commission got involved in the game of ‘vote theft’ itself.
“The SIR to be conducted in 12 states is a conspiracy against democracy. It is a plot to snatch away the rights of the people,” the Congress said.
In a post on X, Khera also asked whether Bihar has been turned into a “laboratory for murdering democracy through SIR”.
“In the 12 states where SIR has been announced, will its guidelines be different from those of the 2003 SIR,” he asked.
“Is this round of SIR also just for vote-cutting, because in Bihar, the Election Commission has not taken any steps towards adding new voters, while 6.5 million votes have been cut,” Khera said in his post in Hindi.
WEST BENGAL TRANSFERS 527 OFFICERS AMID SIR ROLLOUT
The West Bengal government on Monday announced the transfer of over 500 bureaucrats amid the rollout of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.
In one of the largest reshuffles on a single day, 67 IAS and 460 West Bengal Civil Services (Executive) officers were transferred, according to a slew of notifications issued by the Personnel and Administrative Reforms (P&AR) Department.
The transfer notifications were dated October 24, even as they were uploaded on the department’s website in batches before and after the announcement of SIR by the Election Commission.
Notifications for transfers of 61 IAS and 145 WBCS (Executive) officers were uploaded during the first half of the day, while another set of orders, notifying the postings of six IAS and 315 WBCS (Executive) officers, was made available shortly after the EC’s briefing.
Among the officers transferred were 14 district magistrates (DM), multiple special secretaries, several officers-on-special duty (OSDs) and a bunch of ADMs and SDOs from both IAS and WBCS services.
New district magistrates were also appointed in Cooch Behar, Murshidabad, Darjeeling, Malda, Jhargram, Purba and Paschim Medinipur, Hooghly and Dakshin Dinajpur.
The officers are expected to play nodal roles in the SIR exercise, and it would become untenable for the state government to make further reshuffles without the authorisation of the EC once the schedule has been announced, an official said.The opposition BJP shot a complaint letter to the Chief Election Commissioner and demanded the “immediate annulment of the irregular transfers done without ECI approval”. (PTI)
